Medicaid patient asthma-related acute care visits and their associations with ozone and particulates in Washington, DC, from 1994-2005.

The primary objective of this ecologic and contextual study is to determine statistically significant short-term associations between air quality (daily ozone and particulate concentrations) and Medicaid patient general acute care daily visits for asthma exacerbations over 11 years for Washington, DC residents, and to identify regions and populations that may experience increased asthma exacerbations related to air quality. After removing long-term trends and day-of-week effects in the Medicaid data, Poisson regression was applied to daily time series data. Significant associations were found between asthma-related general acute care visits and ozone concentrations.

Pediatric patient asthma-related emergency department visits and admissions in Washington, DC, from 2001-2004, and associations with air quality, socio-economic status and age group.

Background: The District of Columbia (DC) Department of Health, under a grant from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, established an Environmental Public Health Tracking Program. As part of this program, the goals of this contextual pilot study are to quantify short-term associations between daily pediatric emergency department (ED) visits and admissions for asthma exacerbations with ozone and particulate concentrations, and broader associations with socio-economic status and age group.

Methods: Data included daily counts of de-identified asthma-related pediatric ED visits for DC residents and daily ozone and particulate concentrations during 2001-2004.